Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to a heat dissipation device for an integrated circuit assembly and, more particularly, to a structure of a heat sink.
Microprocessors and other related computer components are becoming more and more powerful with increasing capabilities, resulting in increasing amounts of heat generated from these components. Packaged units and integrated circuit die sizes of these components are decreasing or remaining the same, which increases the amount of heat energy given off by these components for a given unit of surface area. Furthermore, as computer related equipment becomes more powerful, more and more components are being placed inside the equipment which is also decreasing in size, resulting in additional heat generation in a smaller volume of space. Increased temperatures can potentially damage the components of the equipment, or reduce the lifetime of the individual components and the equipment. Therefore, large amounts of heat produced by many such integrated circuits must be dissipated, and therefore must be accounted for in designing the integrated circuit mounting and packaging devices.
In current packaging techniques, heat sinks are often applied to the side of microprocessors opposite the side from which the electrical pin connections are mounted to dissipate heat from the microprocessors. The overall size of the heat sinks is limited by the volume constraints of the housing. Also the current manufacturing techniques generally limit fin density to less than 2.5 fins per centimeter, and an aspect ratio of fins (fin height to fin thickness) to less than 12. To improve the amount of heat dissipated from the heat producing components, there is a need to increase a heat dissipation convection surface area of the heat sinks without increasing the volume of the heat sinks.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need to increase the heat dissipation convection surface area for a given volume of heat sink.